Title
Turning the plough
(1918)
printed 1920
Artist
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Details
- Other Title
- The plough
- Dates
- (1918)
printed 1920 - Media category
- Materials used
- etching, black ink with plate tone on ivory wove paper
- Edition
- from edition of 50-55
- Dimensions
- 7.4 x 7.8 cm platemark; 12.3 x 12.9 cm sheet
- Signature & date
Signed l.l., pencil "Hans Heysen.". Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 1921
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 515
- Copyright
- © C Heysen
- Artist information
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Hans Heysen
Works in the collection
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About
Hans Heysen was born in Hamburg and came to Australia with his parents in 1883. He studied in Adelaide under James Ashton, 1895 and Harry Gill, 1898 and under Jean Paul Laurens, Benjamin Constant and Leon Bonnat in Paris from 1899-1901. In 1908 Heysen settled at Hahndorf in South Australia and following his first exhibition in Melbourne that year established himself as a major painter of landscape, winning the Gallery's Wynne Prize for landscape nine times.
There are very few etchings by Heysen, of which this is one of the best known. He first made etchings while studying in Europe 1899-1904, or shortly after he returned, and again 1910-11. The drawing for this etching on a sheet of studies of a man ploughing with a two horse team, in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia. The study and etching are about the same size. A larger, fully developed charcoal drawing of the same subject was made after the etching and the Wynne Prize winning watercolour 'The toilers' in 1920. The two draught horses in these works are Polly and Jack, who were regularly brought in to plough and cultivate the soil at Heysen's property 'The Cedars' at Hahndorf. Another watercolour of them ploughing is in the Gallery's collection. Heysen was able to proof his etchings on his lithographic press, but the edition was printed by Lionel Lindsay, who encouraged Heysen to etch. 'Turning the plough' was included in the first exhibition of the Painter-Etchers Society in 1921, from which it was purchased by the Gallery.
Hendrik Kolenberg and Anne Ryan, 'Australian prints from the Gallery's collection', AGNSW, 1998
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Exhibition history
Shown in 3 exhibitions
Animals on paper: from the Australian collection of prints, drawings and watercolours, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 05 Sep 1992–05 Oct 1992
Animals on paper: from the Australian collection of prints, drawings and watercolours, Dubbo Regional Art Gallery, Dubbo, 18 Dec 1992–24 Jan 1993
Animals on paper: from the Australian collection of prints, drawings and watercolours, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, Booragul, 01 May 1993–30 May 1993
Animals on paper: from the Australian collection of prints, drawings and watercolours, Grafton Regional Gallery, , 11 Jun 1993–01 Aug 1993
Australian prints from the Gallery's collection (1998-1999), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 06 Nov 1998–07 Feb 1999
Hans and Nora Heysen: Two Generations of Australian Art, Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne, 08 Mar 2019–28 Jul 2019
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Bibliography
Referenced in 5 publications
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Roger Arthur Butler, Printed images by Australian artists 1885-1955, Canberra, 2007, 28 (colour illus.). Collection of Art Gallery of South Australia
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Hendrik Kolenberg and Anne Ryan, Australian prints from the Gallery's collection, Sydney, 1998, 42 (colour illus.). cat.no. 27
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Hendrik Kolenberg, Animals on paper - from the Australian collection of prints, drawings and watercolours, Sydney, 1992. cat.no. 21
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Lionel Lindsay, 150 years of Australian art, Sydney, 1938. cat.no. 636 [Gallery No. 5], titled 'The plough'
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Anne Ryan, Australian etchings and engravings 1880s–1930s from the Gallery's collection, Sydney, 2007, 43 (colour illus.). cat.no. 60
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